"Katherine Kurtz - Adept 01 - The Adept" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kurtz Katherine)

"Peregrine," he said quietly, "Lady Laura Kintoul was diagnosed with terminal cancer nearly six months ago.
That was long before you made a start on her portrait. Foreseeing someone's death is not the same thing as
causing it."
When Peregrine offered no response, Adam tried another tack.
"Is death the only thing that you see?"
Peregrine gave a quick shake of his head.
"What else do you see?" Adam prompted.
Peregrine lifted his head, making a gallant attempt to get his emotions under control again.
"Well, it's - hard to describe," he said hesitantly. "I see - the sorts of things I seem to remember seeing when
I was very young. Sometimes it's only the background that changes - and then it's as if I'm looking into some
other time or some other place. Sometimes the face itself changes when I look at it from another angle, or in
another light. It's still the same person - but different somehow."
Adam nodded. "Can you give me an example?"
Peregrine bit his lip. "Well, take you, for instance. Even as I sit here, I can't be entirely sure what you look
like. Something about your aspect keeps changing. I see you differently now than I did only a minute ago."
Adam was listening intently. "Is it my death that you see?"
Peregrine flinched at the question, then recovered himself. "No. Not your deathтАж" He narrowed his eyes and
cocked his head at several different angles, as though trying to stabilize his vision.
"It's no use," he said after a labored pause. "I can't tell you what it is I see."
Adam sat silent for a moment, weighing his next words very carefully.
"I think we ought to see if there isn't some way to remedy that," he said at last, setting aside his untouched
glass. "There are ways to separate and clarify one's perceptions. If you're willing, I propose carrying out a
simple experiment. "
"An experiment?" A wild, almost cornered look flitted briefly behind Peregrine's eyes, but then he took an
impulsive gulp of whiskey.
"Why not?" he said, suddenly reckless. "I certainly can't go on the way I have been. If this experiment of
yours offers any hope at all, I'm willing to give it a try."

chapter four

GOOD lad," said Adam approvingly. "Now all we need are a few simple props."
He left his seat and shifted a small rosewood side table away from the end of the adjoining settee and into
the space . directly in front of Peregrine's chair. Then he returned to the drinks cabinet to rummage in a
bottom drawer. When he rejoined Peregrine a moment later, he was carrying a fisherman's float made of
transparent, pale green glass. He handed it to Peregrine, who set aside his tumbler to take it.
"A crystal ball?" the artist said, with more than a trace of skepticism in his tone.
"If you wish," Adam replied, smiling. "I'll explain everything in a moment. You can decide then if you want to
carry this any further."
From the mantelpiece he took one of the pair of silver candlesticks flanking an oil of a hunting scene, bending
to light the stub of a long fireplace match from the fire and then using that to light the candle in the silver
candlestick. This he brought to Peregrine's table, setting it carefully in the center. Peregrine watched all
these preparations with mingled fascination and uncertainty. By the flickering candlelight, the intricate inlay
pattern in the top of the rosewood table seemed almost to glow.
"Now," Adam said, as he resumed his seat opposite Peregrine. "As you probably already know, the keys to
most upheavals of the psyche generally lie buried in the individual's unconscious mind. Before we can get at
those keys, we need to set the conscious mind at rest. There are chemical ways of doing this, of course, but
they all have their side effects. Besides, you've already told me that drugs just make your problem worse.
"What I propose, then - and what I prefer anyway - is that we use one of several meditational techniques I've
found useful in the past. One of the ways the unconscious guards its secrets is by projecting fear into the
conscious. So I'd like to direct you in a simple relaxation exercise, to see if we can't bypass that fear and get